May 31, 2015

As many of you will know, I edit the Combat Zone Chronicles. A part of the CoZoChron is the Cowtown Chronicles, where I build Old West buildings using various techniques, and also build and review Old West building kits.

In an effort to get update information out there more easily, I have made a Facebook page where I will showcase old articles and announce new ones. Cowtown Chronicle on FB. Please have a look, and let me know what you think!

May 25, 2015

A friend of mine in the UK is involved in a VBCW campaign, and I am quite jealous of him. It sounds like a lot of fun.

I am participating vicariously by building support pieces and vehicles and sending them to him, in an effort to pretend I’m involved somehow.

His forces have a mortar section manned by Spanish Civil War veterans from the P.O.U.M., so I made him an armoured lorry crewed by the even more fanatic wives of the P.O.U.M.

In theory, it’s an armoured box on the back with either a rail or positions the guns can be moved to, allowing them each to fire to three arcs of the vehicle. (I have no idea how the rules will treat them, that’s just my theory.)

The basic vehicle is a Lledo piece from eBay. I found one with a good price and low shipping and bid on it. I then found another that was cheaper and had cheaper shipping, and said ‘Buy it Now.’ So I can only advise you to read all the listings before choosing. And yes I won the other auction, so I bought two lorries.

All modifications were done with plastic card, glued on with cyano adhesive.

Armour plate was added to the doors and windows, and either sliding or hinged shutters over the vision slits. There’s also angled plates over the radiator. I copied all the features from various home-made armoured cars of the era.

The markings were copied from P.O.U.M. vehicles in Spain, except for the skull & crossbones. That just seemed fitting.

The guns are Russian HMGs, one with a ribbed water jacket, one without. The front MG also has a gun shield. They are on wire supports for strength, but are supposed to be on the top of the armoured box. (The crew isn’t using monopods)

The crew are modified Dunwich Detective females, available from Spacelords & More. They’ve had long hair and headgear added, and the gunners have had new arms ineptly sculpted.

They are placed on sabots so you can place the guns facing whatever arc you choose. They are supposed to be pushed against the wall, even though I didn’t always do it in the pictures.

May 11, 2015

When building WW1 forces, you need more than Infantry. You need Machine Guns and Artillery.Unfortunately, what you want is sometimes not available.

I built a WW1 BEF force from RENEGADE Early War British. I had to alter some hats to 1914 styles, but overall they are a good-looking range.

But I wanted a small Canadian force so I could fight Second Ypres. The infantry was easy, I just painted them a different shade than the British. It’s not 100% correct, the uniforms were not identical, but it’s good enough for me.

I made a Colt MG and crewed it with spare Artillery figures. Most parts are from the Vickers guns, I just made the actual gun, from wire & putty.

The Canadian gun is a 4.5 in. QF Howitzer from tin-soldier.com. I chose the dark green because I wanted it to look like the die-cast toy artillery of my youth. The gun is an excellent kit, fits together well, and looks good when finished. (I actually made this piece so I could use the gun. I really like the kit)